Ivory Coast Clashes Erupt at State TV as Rebels Enter Abidjan

The Republican Forces have captured at least eight towns in the past week, including San Pedro, one of two major cocoa-exporting ports in the world’s top producer of the chocolate ingredient. Photographer: Issouf Sanogo/AFP/Getty Images

March 31 (Bloomberg) -- Fighters loyal to Ivory Coast’s
President-elect Alassane Ouattara, 69, are fighting to take over
the state-run broadcaster in the commercial capital, Abidjan, as
they look to oust incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo.

Heavy artillery and explosions were heard around the Radio
Television Ivorienne, which skipped its usual 8 p.m. news
bulletin.

“Ouattara’s troops are trying to take the state television
building and there are youth around the RTI who are firing
back,” Jean-Paul Turin, who saw the clashes from his apartment,
said by phone.

Ouattara’s Prime Minister Guillaume Soro will enter Abidjan
with the so-called Republican Forces tonight after an ultimatum
for Gbagbo to quit lapsed at 7 p.m. local time, Alain Lobognon,
an adviser to Soro, said by phone. Meanwhile, the head of
Gbagbo’s army, General Phillipe Mangou, sought refuge at the
residence of the South African ambassador, according to the
Pretoria-based Foreign Ministry said.

In another blow to Gbagbo, General Edouard Tiape Kassarate,
head of the military police, defected to Ouattara’s
administration at its headquarters in the Golf Hotel in Abidjan,
Lobognon said. The loyalty of the armed forces had enabled
Gbagbo to defy international isolation and hold onto power since
disputing his loss in Nov. 28 elections.

“I’m not sure Gbagbo is in control any longer,” said
Rinaldo Depagne, a Dakar-based analyst for International Crisis
Group. “The first step for a peaceful outcome is Gbagbo coming
and saying I quit.”

Rapid Advance

The assault on the state television station comes after a
week in which the Republican Forces have advanced south, meeting
little resistance from the Ivorian army. Ouattara’s forces
captured San Pedro, one of two major cocoa-exporting ports, and
Yamoussoukro, the political capital, in the past two days,
raising hopes that a four-month political crisis may soon be
over.

Cocoa for May delivery slumped to an 11-week low on hopes
for a quick resumption in exports. The price dropped $35, or 1.2
percent, to $2,952 per metric ton as of 4:36 p.m. in New York.

Ivory Coast’s defaulted dollar-denominated bond rallied 9.9
percent to 47.375 cents on the dollar as of 8:38 p.m. in
Abidjan, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It has gained
21.8 percent since March 22.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on
Gbagbo to step down and hand over power to Ouattara. The UN
peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast wouldn’t use force to help
resolve the political impasse, he told reporters in Nairobi,
Kenya, today.

‘Rejoin Legality’

Ouattara called for soldiers loyal to Gbagbo to lay down
their arms.

“I ask you to put yourself in the hands of your country
and rejoin legality,” said Ouattara, in a video of a speech
distributed by his staff. “Your country calls you.”

Soldiers remain near the presidential palace in Abidjan and
Gbagbo’s residence, Agence France-Presse reported, citing Choi
Young-Jin, head of the UN mission in the West African country. A
blockade of the Golf Hotel, where Ouattara has been holed up
under the protection of the UN, has been lifted, AFP said. UN
troops have now taken control of Abidjan’s airport, the news
service said.

French forces stationed in Abidjan are patrolling the city
to prevent “gangs of thugs” from taking advantage of a
“security vacuum” to loot, French military spokesman Thierry
Burkhard said in a phone interview.

‘Catastrophe’

“Abidjan is on the brink of a human rights catastrophe and
total chaos,” Salvatore Sagues, a West Africa researcher for
London-based Amnesty International, said in an e-mailed
statement. “The international community must take immediate
steps to protect the civilian population.”

Retreating Liberian mercenaries committed arbitrary
executions and looted towns, especially around the western town
of Guiglo, the UN said in an e-mailed statement.

Gbagbo has “hours to leave power peacefully”, Soro said
this morning, ruling out the possibility of negotiations or a
cease-fire. “If he doesn’t cede power now the forces will march
on Abidjan and obviously it’ll be victor’s law then,” Soro said
in an interview with Paris-based Radio France Internationale
today.

Soro, in the company of rebel leaders, spoke to a crowd of
thousands in Yamoussoukro at 4:30 p.m. local time, asking them
if they wanted the rebels to march on Abidjan, Bernard
N’Guessan, a resident, said. The crowd cheered and shouted
“yes,” he said.

UN Sanctions

Ivory Coast “has reached the boiling point,” said Daniel
Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “We are
extremely concerned about the potential for further human rights
atrocities, given the killings by both sides and the continued
incitement to violence through the media by Gbagbo cronies.”

Gbagbo still has “an opportunity to step aside and avoid
bloodshed,” Johnnie Carson, the U.S. assistant secretary of
state for African affairs, told reporters in Washington. If he
doesn’t he will be held accountable for violence in the city, he
said.

“The civilian population, whatever their ethnicity,
whatever their religion, has absolutely nothing to fear” from
the Republican Forces taking control of Abidjan, Soro said.